Tis' The Season
by Gagegirl06
Summary: Los Angeles gets its first big winter! things get fun for the crew at 51 and Rampartsorry about the K12 part at the car accident.. it's supposed to be the 'Jaws' that open the door!


**Tis' the Season**

The land rover revved its engine and gently slid sideways as Johnny made the turn into the station. Chet giggled at his friend having quite a time making it up the icy patch in the stations parking lot.

It was almost time for roll call, so Johnny rushed from his vehicle to make it in, in time to change and be present and not have to get latrine duty again. Roy had just pulled in as well, but was taking it easy making his way across the parking lot, not sure where there was ice and where there was not.

He almost had to laugh to himself, knowing Johnny was going to catch a slick spot somewhere, and as quickly as the thought had entered his mind, it happened.

John caught his heel on a patch of black ice and landed flat on his butt. Roy couldn't suppress the laughter as he watched his junior partner pick himself up. Knowing Johnny had just got a nice whack, he let himself laugh since no danger was present in the situation.

"You okay there partner?.." Roy managed to said almost in an attempt to slightly annoy his young friend as he hid the smile on his face.

"Yea… fine." John replied with a hint of embarrassment and anger in his voice as he brushed off the seat of his pants and walked sorely into the station.

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After roll call, all the men began to do their various chores around the station. It was Chet's turn to cook, Marco had latrine duty (which John was grateful of), Roy had to mop up the bunk room and bay area, and Mike and John went outside to scrape the ice out of the parking lot while Stanley went to his office and shut to door to get down to his usual unwelcoming pile of paperwork.

John and Mike had just begun their double teaming efforts against the ice when the tones rang out in the station.

"Station 51, traffic accident, with injuries, West Leland and 4th, time out 10:22"

Stanley emerged from his office, grabbing the mic and confirming their response to the call…

"Station 51, 10-4, KMG 365"

Johnny and Mike stumbled clumsly through the parking lot, hitting slick spots, but managing to keep their balance at the same time. As they entered onto the stations floor John ran to the squad and shut the door beside him; fastening his helmet onto his head as Roy hit the lights and the siren and they barreled out of the station with the engine following close on their tail.

"It was bound to happen…." Was all John said as he threw up his hands in defeat and shook his head letting Roy just continue their drive to the scene.

"What's that?" Roy questioned his partner, but had a good idea what he was talking about.

"A traffic accident!" John looked at Roy like he was dumb or something "man those roads were bad this morning coming in! I almost lost myself a few times on some of the back roads." John answered

"Yea, I know what ya mean, I told Joanne to be careful this morning before I left, her and the kids were heading up to her mothers house for the weekend…."

"And you know the funny thing…. " John cut into his partners talking "I have never seen it be this cold in LA before, let alone snow and ice… I bet most of the people here don't even know how to drive in it…. boy are we gonna be in for it!" John sighed heavily and laid more in a slouching position in his seat while Roy chewed on his lip and just shook his head.

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The squad rolled to a stop at the scene. It was a quiet little neighborhood. One car coming from the opposite lane had just swerved slightly over the line, and the other car was pinned between it and a tree that was hovering beside the near-by sidewalk. It was likely there would be injuries, but probably minor and minimal.

Johnny hopped out of the squad, not bothering to get any equipment at the present moment, and jogged lightly over to the car that was pinned, estimating in his mind that the most damage would be to the victim in there.

He couldn't get to the drivers door, or to the passengers to open it because they were both blocked. Wanting to check out the victim as soon as he could, he opened the rear door on the drivers side and climbed in the back seat.

John had to push several large bags filled with wrapped packages out of the way, and with thinness on his side made his way crawling and sliding into the front passenger seat.

(back outside the car…)

Roy walked over to the other vehicle carrying the supply box's. A man was standing outside of it leaning against the car, holding a cloth to his head that a woman from one of the neighborhood houses had brought out. He was giving his statement of the accident to police officer Vince as Roy approached.

"I didn't even see that ice…. whadya call it again?" the gentleman looked at the officer from under the corner of the cloth.

"It's black ice…"Roy chimed in as he made his way to the mans side "Why don't you let me take a look at that head injury you got so we can patch you all up." Roy smiled and reached up to remove the mans hand from where he was holding the cloth to his forehead just above the right eye.

"Yea… yeah… okay." The man let his hand down revealing the gash in his head and oozing with blood.

"Doesn't look like anything too serious…"Roy stated "but I do think you're gonna need to ride into the hospital and get some stitches…. Are you hurt anywhere else or is your head in a lot of pain.?"

"Naw…. Just that dumb cut… I think I'm fine though… other than the fact I'm gonna have to dish out some money for that poor guy." He nodded back over to the other car in front of him that he had hit.

"Yea… these things happen." Roy just did half a smile and continued to apply a sterile dressing on his patient.

(back to Johnny)

Inside the car John could tell that the mans left leg had been pinned tight between the door and the steering wheel. What couldn't tell was whether or not it was injured at all. The victim was semi-councious and appeared to had hit his head against the drivers side window, judging by the spider-webbed glass and bump forming on his head.

John smiled to himself as he noted mentally that the man was dressed up like Santa Claus, white beard and all. John saw the man beginning to come around.

"Sir…sir… can you hear me?" John questioned as he put a reassuring hand on the mans shoulder.

Suddenly the man jerked awake and grabbed the steering wheel, starting to panic he frantically looked around.

"Sir I need you to calm down!" John said harshly as he tried to restrain the man against the seat. "I'm a paramedic with the Los Angles County Fire Department, you've been in an auto accident, but everything is okay, we'll get you outta here." John noticed his words were not relaying any comfort to the man who tugged at his pant leg to free it.

"Get me outta here!" the man yelled.

"Alright, alright, we're working on it, just calm down and let me take a look at your head." John proceeded to brush back a blood stained lock of the man's hair from his forehead to get a better look at the wound.

"How does that leg of yours feel?" John asked giving the man a smile

"The leg's fine, I just wanna get out." The man said in disgust.

'Fine way for Santa to act' John thought to himself as Chet and Marco began using the K-12 to pry the door open.

Johnnie had just reached for the man's wrist to get pulse when 'POP' the door opened up and before he could tell what was happening, his mystery Santa man took off running down the street.

John scrambled across the seat to get out of the door and took off after the man, dropping his helmet in the process, then taking off his turnout coat because it was dragging him down.

"What in the world is that all about?" Chet asked as he stood back with a perplexed look on his Irish face.

"It's about this…." Vince reached in the back of the car pulling out one of the 'Christmas' box's. "Looks like it's loaded with cocaine….. hey did anyone follow Johnny?" He suddenly realized with worry in his voice

"Yea… Cap followed right behind him, and Marco and Mike both ran down separate side roads to try and cut them off." Roy said with confidence and turned to his patient "Well, looks like you won't be having to dish out money for this thing after all, you may have just helped out with a drug bust." Roy smiled and just shook his head as he continued the bandaging process.

"Yea… yea.. I guess you're right, that does sort of brighten things up a bit." The man smiled as he sat in the seat of his car and let Roy take his vitals.

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Johnny was beginning to feel out of breath but kept on running full force. The man in the Santa outfit was surprisingly doing well with keeping ahead of him, considering he had the head injury and all, John was praying for him to pass out soon.

Captain Stanley had given up the run and had succumbed to a light jog behind his paramedic, figuring they would never catch the man.

Mike ran out from a side street just in time to see John go barreling by, and continued a fast paced run joining in behind him.

As Marco approached the stop sign at the end of the street he had turned down, he could hear the rapid pound of shoes hitting the pavement with rhythm approaching in his ears. With one final effort he pushed his legs to the max and ran full force. Without even paying attention he ran straight through the stop sign and tackled the man down to the sidewalk with enough force to have taken down one of the redskins defensive lineman.

Coming to his senses, standing up, and jerking his nemesis up by the shirt, he realized the man he tackled was not in red, but in fact was wearing the same outfit he was.

Mr. John Gage wearily sat up, cupping his hands to his face, but could not completely hide and cover the blood gushing from his nose.

"Oh John…" was all Marco managed to say as he clenched his teeth tight together and sucked the air in through them, trying as much as possible to not imagine the pain his co-worker may be experiencing.

"Where'd he go?.." John managed to say as he stood up and looked around, still holding his nose with both hands, and letting the few tears escape his eyes from the burn he felt in his face.

Both men's eyes saw the man dressed in red stumbling to his knees and then drop motionless to the sidewalk about 40 ft. in front of them.

Marco and John ran over to the man. John dropped down to his knee's, not wanting to abandon the pressure he was holding on his own face, but needing to check his patient, he moved his hands, letting the blood drop freely down his upper lip and chin.

The man was breathing normally and John took a pulse and confirmed that his vitals were most likely fine. John came to the conclusion he had just passed out from the apparent mild concussion that he had, and went back to holding his own face and trying to ignore the throbbing pain.

Captain Stanley Spoke into his HT as he and Mike approached John, Marco, and the patient.

"Hey John, I've got Roy coming with the squad and second ambulance, how's he doing?" Stanley asked.

"He's okay, just a concussion I think" John said nasily from behind his hands.

"What happened to you?" Stanley asked, having been too far behind to have seen the tackle.

"Marco took him out…" Mike chuckled as he put his hands on his hips and watched as Marco began to laugh too, Johnny smiled slightly but was not amused.

The squad came to a stop and Roy hopped out carrying their equipment. Vince and the second ambulance pulled in right behind.

"John, I'm gonna need a statement from you gentlemen." Vince said summoning them over to him.

Roy dropped down beside the unconscious man.

"What injuries did he have?" Roy yelled across to his partner.

"Just a concussion…. I think" John replied back.

"Then where's all this blood coming from?" Roy looked up perplexed, but then saw his partner with his hand to his nose and just turned away and took a set of vitals, and opened up the bio-phone to contact Rampart.

"Rampart, this is squad 51, how do you read" He waited on the line for a response.

"51 this is Rampart, go ahead" the familiar voice of Dixie McCall came across the speaker.

"Rampart be advised our first patient is en-route to the hospital ETA 10 minutes, and we have caught up with our second patient, we have a male, approximately 28 years old, suffering from what appears to be a concussion from an auto accident. There are some minor cuts on the head from the glass and he has a nice gouge at the point of contact, it seems to be swollen and bruised. Patient was coherent but is now unconscious, vitals are BP 120/70, pulse 100 and strong, pupils are equal and reactive, and there appear to be no other injuries at this time." Roy finished

"10-4, 51, start an IV normal saline, monitor vitals every 10 min. and bring him on in." The voice on receiving end had switched over to Brackett's.

"10-4 Rampart, IV normal saline, vitals every 10" Roy released the trigger on the phone and closed up the box, and quickly abandoned it to go take a look at John with the blood coming off his face.

"Hey partner you okay?..." He asked moving John's hands out of the way and trying to take a look.

"Yea… I think Marco broke my nose…." John squinted with pain as Roy touched it.

"Yea.. I think you're right… I'll call it into Rampart…" Roy returned to the bio-phone and motioned for Johnny to come over and take a seat by the squad "I'm sure they'll want some vitals." He said as he took out the BP cuff and pumped it up on Johns arm.

"Rampart, this is 51 again, how do you read?" Roy released the trigger on the receiver

"51 this is Rampart, go ahead…" Brackett replied from the other line

"Rampart be advised we have a third patient, suffering from a direct tackle onto the pavement, appears to have broken his nose…" Roy waited for a reply

"51 is the patient in any pain?" Brackett asked

Roy looked over to John who was holding a wad of gauze to his face and gently nodded up at Roy.

"That's affirmative Rampart, patient is in pain…"

"51, could you give me a set of vitals?"

"10-4 Rampart, BP is 115/70, pulse 80, respirations are 10 and shallow, skin is somewhat cool and clammy Rampart."

"51, start IV with normal saline drip but administer no medication at this time until we can take some pictures to see if there is any head injuries. Treat him for shock and bring him on in"

"10-4 Rampart, ETA 10 minutes."

Roy shut the bio-phone and went to get the portable stretcher off the squad as the ambulance attendants loaded 'Santa' up. John picked himself up and laid on the stretcher. The men picked him up and slid him on the bench seat in the back of the ambulance. Marco grabbed the squad keys from Roy and shut the ambulance doors giving it two taps on the back to signal for them to go ahead.

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Roy stood outside of the nurse's desk restocking his supplies as Marco made his way in.

"Hey Roy!" Marco said smiling and holding out the keys "Cap's waiting for me outside, wanted to know when you think you and Johnny will be headed outta here or if he needs to call in a replacement?"

"Naw, Johnny just got a little shocky out in the field. They took the x-rays and everything seems to be okay, just a minor fracture to his nose, the doc's gonna give him some anti-inflammatory stuff, but they said he should be good to go soon." Roy smiled and patted Marco on the shoulder.

"Okay, well see you guys back for chow!" Marco turned and headed out

"Hey! Who's cookin?..." Roy's words just echoed down the hallway and he just swatted a hand through the air in defeat as Marco turned the corner not hearing a word he had said.

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Roy backed the squad in and he and John hopped out and headed to the kitchen for lunch. Roy caught a drift of spicy smells as he entered the kitchen.

"Chet… what is that?" He questioned looking over the stocky mans shoulder and into the pot on the stove.

"It's this new recipe my aunt Cindy gave me…. Its called Irish surprise" Chet smiled and continued to stir the pot.

Roy turned away widening his eyes and taking a seat at the table with everyone else. Taking time to notice everyone staring at John's new face mask, was what it look a lot like. White tape and a few small splint structures ran up and over his nose and right underneath it, holding his fracture in place.

"Hey John… sorry about earlier" Marco said holding a mild smile to his face

"Aww… its alright, I probably would've done the same thing…. I tell you what though… you should start a company football team…. Man was that a hit!" He smiled as he gently rubbed the bridge of his nose and everyone else in the room gave a warm chuckle.

Kelly had just turned the stove-top off and was dishing out the servings when the tones sounded and interrupted them.

"Station 51, station 110, truck 12, battalion 13, structure fire, 4181 West Colbert St., Time out 15:25"

The men ran for their spots in the vehicles. Stanley scribbled the location on paper and confirmed their dispatch into the mic before throwing the directions through the squad window at Roy, who then handed them to Johnny.

With sirens and lights….they headed out into the freezing cold to fight the fire.

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Station 51 pulled up second on the scene to be welcomed by a partially involved abandoned apartment complex.

The men all jumped out donning their SCB gear and responding to orders from their captains.

"John… Roy" Stanley called, waving them over to where he stood. "There shouldn't be anybody in there, but go do a quick sweep to make sure… it looks like the 1st and 2nd floors are the only ones completely involved right now, ride the ladder truck up to the roof and work your way down… if it gets too hot in there, come back up and we'll get ya down" Stanley nodded, signaling he had concluded his orders.

"Right Cap!" Roy and John chimed together and took off toward the ladder truck for their ride to the top.

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Once entering the building from the roof top, Roy signaled to John to go down and search the next floor while he searched the one they were on.

John gave a quick nod of acknowledgement and took off into the smoke in the stairs below him.

Roy quickly ran through each apartment which consisted of one room and a walled barrier that had a bedroom and bathroom on the other side. There were only 4 on each level, so he was already almost done.

Making a quick run around to the bedroom and into the bathroom in the last apartment, Roy found the bathroom door to be bolted shut. He mad a swift kick to the lock and knocked it in to find a young man laying next to the tub with a wet cloth wrapped around his face.

Roy dropped down and took his mask off, offering it to the boy.

"Thanks…" he said and accepted the generous offer, taking deep needed breaths into the oxygen.

"You think you're alright to walk son?" Roy asked. Noticing the boy had ashes and soot on his face, telling him he had probably been down in the fire.

"Yea, I think I'm okay… just scared that I was never gonna get outta here." He replied looking up at Roy with relief.

"Is there anyone else in the building that you know of?" Roy asked as he helped the young man up off the floor.

"No… just me… I made sure of that before I torched the place." He managed through coughing as he shook his head and just stared downward.

"You're telling me you set this place on fire?" Roy asked with shock in his voice

"Yea… I'm not an arsonist or anything like that…I used to live here way before they condemned it, they were gonna knock the old place down anyway… I figured it was cold and snowing outside so it wouldn't really spread anywhere else or nothing like that… so I doused the first 3 floors in gasoline and threw a match down the stair well… I tried to make it up here to the 4th floor and get out on the roof in time to take the emergency stairs down, but once I got out on the roof, I found out the stairs had rusted and fallen off, I went back down to the second floor but still couldn't get to the stairs, and the heat was intense… I knew I would be safe…. At least for a little while up here on the fourth floor. …… hey…. Did the 3rd floor catch fire yet? I never heard it explode….." The boy finished and looked up at Roy with question in his eyes

"Johnny!" Roy whispered under his breath "Come on…" He grabbed the boy roughly by the arm and ran out of the apartment with him.

"Here's what you need to do…." Roy began "Take the stairs to the top of the roof… we've got a ladder truck out there that can come up and get you. As soon as you're down on the ground, let them know to have the ladder ready at the 3rd floor for us to come out… you think you can do that?" Roy looked at the boy with hope in his eyes.

"Got it!" The boy smiled at Roy and took off toward the staircase. And as he took off toward his, Roy took off to the lower level.

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John was finishing up checking the last apartment when Roy came running in full force.

"John we've gotta get outta here!" He shouted with a muffled voice. "There's gas all over the place….you probably couldn't smell it because of your nose, but it's thick in the air… and the smoke is starting to come up the stairs, I'm not sure how much time we have left!"

Without a word John just nodded quickly at Roy and ran over to the apartment window, opening it up and waving for the ladder to come and get them.

He and Roy both leaned out of the window, waiting in anticipation, then in fear as they watched the ladder truck struggle to push through the snow. The big truck slid sideways partly down an embankment next to the building. Roy crossed his fingers in hope that the ladder would be able to reach him and John from there.

The crew at the ladder truck began hitting the right buttons to send it their way. Roy and Johnny prayed every second longer that it took for it to reach them.

Suddenly it came to an abrupt stop, swaying in the cool air just to the right of the window, and about 2 ft. away.

"Here…." Roy said beginning to take John by the arm. "I'll help you out first."

John put up no fight at all and moved with haste, stretching his body over the small gap and grabbing onto the edge of the ladder and with a pull and swing, he managed to successfully get on top, when suddenly everyone from below began to yell and run with lines to different areas of the building. John looked back at Roy intensely, knowing it was about to blow!

Roy could feel the heat under him and could almost feel the rush of ignition of the gasoline. He had no choice… John barely knew what was going on …when 'BOOM'!

Roy lunged his body out through the window as glass and fire pushed him even further. With a stunningly tight grip with his legs, John reached himself out over the tip of the ladder just as Roy's arms extended for him. And in one swift motion Roy caught John's arm.

'POP'… 'SLAM' It all happened so fast, but Roy felt Johnny's shoulder dislocate. The weight of De'Soto at that high speed also slammed Johnny's face and upper chest into the ladder rungs before him. Roy quickly reached up for his own grip on the ladder just in time.

He and Johnny both heard the varying gasps and yells from below as the ladder rocked under them, but they held on.

John felt the pain in his shoulder and in his chest, and he knew he had caught his friend, he felt the pain in his face as his broken nose slammed into the rungs. He tried to look to see if Roy was okay, if he was holding on, but his field of vision was diminishing quickly, he knew he had a head injury, he didn't even have time to register the pain before everything went black and his body went limp against the frame of the ladder.

Roy snatched an arm up quickly to grab onto Johnny's jacket as soon as he saw his eyes shut and muscles relax. He had to use every-strength possible within himself to keep his partner from sliding, while dangling in mid-air himself.

The ladder crew down below had already begun a quick decent of the ladder to the ground, and squad 110 was waiting impatiently at the bottom.

Roy could see his feet nearing the ground and the ladder not so much at an incline anymore, he let go of his partner, feeling it was safe now, and let himself plummet just a foot or so below, landing in a pile of cold, white snow.

The rest of the men from other various crews ran to the ladder which was now in reach.

"Don't move him…" Roy ordered as he stood up from the ground and brushed himself off. "Let's get a collar on him first, and then a back board, and be careful of that right shoulder, I'm pretty sure I dislocated it up there.." He finished saying.

"Are you alright Roy?" Stanley asked from behind

"Got some shaken nerves, a couple small cuts from the glass on my face, but other than that I'm okay." Roy replied giving a nod to his Captain to let him know all was well.

They got the C collar on Johnny and strapped him as best they could to the backboard before flipping him over and carrying him the nearby stretcher that was waiting his arrival.

Roy ran to his side, ready to drop and start assessing his patient, but Dwyer who was taking up an extra shift at 110's threw up a hand in protest and led Roy to a seated position by the stretcher.

"We've got this Roy…" He said "You just relax now…. He'll be just fine" Dwyer gave a smile and nod of encouragement to Roy before turning to John to begin assessing him.

He flipped open the bio-phone to contact Rampart after taking a full set of vitals and getting a rapid assessment of Johnny's condition.

"Rampart this is squad 110, how do you read?" Dwyer let go of the trigger on the receiver

"This is Rampart 110, go ahead"

"Rampart, we have two patients, first is a male 36 years old, just has some contusions and a few lacerations from an explosion, may need some stitches. Second patient is male 28 years old, appears to have a dislocated shoulder and possible fracture to the collarbone, also has rapidly appearing contusions to his upper chest, possible rib and sternum fractures; he is also unconscious at this time, be advised patient is John Gage and may have broken his nose more severely and developed a severe concussion." Dwyer waited for a response after his long winded list.

"110, patch you're first patient up and send him in, and let me get vitals on patient 2" Brackett bit his upper lip at the other line at Rampart and looked over at Dixie telling her through his body language that it didn't sound too good.

"10-4 Rampart, vitals are … BP 90/70, pulse 80 and thready, respirations are shallow and few, diminished sounds on the right side. right pupil responsive to light, the left is slightly dilated, but both are sluggish. Patient is having some trouble breathing on his own. He is unresponsive to any pain stimuli at this time, and is in shock. We have currently immobilized the arm and are treating for shock"

"110 start an IV with D5W TKO. Watch his vitals carefully and report them every 5, pack him up and get him in here ASAP, he may soon be in need of a chest tube." Brackett ended the call.

"10-4 Rampart, D5W TKO, vitals every 5, ETA 10 minutes"

Brackett looked back over to Dixie who was impatiently waiting for orders.

"Dix, I want to get set up in 4, call OR and have them on standby, and I want X-ray down here yesterday!... let's go" Brackett left the receiving station and made his way to the emergency doors to wait for the arrival of his patient.

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The ambulance backed into the emergency entrance; lights still flashing. The rear doors of the vehicle flung open and Dwyer jumped out as Roy followed the gurney holding up the IV bag.

Brackett could tell something was up by the way they were in haste with rushing Johnny inside.

"What happened?" Brackett demanded as he jogged alongside the gurney, barely managing to hook his stethoscope into his ears and place it on Johns chest.

Dwyer was using a bag valve mask on John to assist him with his breathing at the moment.

"I think his lung collapsed…" He said out of breathe as they transferred him from the gurney to the hospital exam table. "He started coming to in the ambulance, then he looked up at me sort of scared all of a sudden, he couldn't breathe on his own, so we bagged him and he passed out again." Dwyer finished talking as Brackett finished palpating the chest and ribs.

The x-ray tech walked in the room and all of the men left. Brackett turned the man.

"I want those films STAT!"

The technician just turned and nodded, pushing the rest of his equipment into the room and going about his business as everyone else stepped outside.

Brackett looked at Roy's concerned face.

"He'll pull through just fine." He touched Roy on the shoulder with reassurance. "He's been in worse spots before, and he'll live to tell all the nurses about this one as well."

"Yea… I know what cha mean" Roy smiled letting some of the tension go, knowing Brackett was right.

Dixie walked over and put her arms around the paramedic who was sitting on a stool at the nurses station.

"Hey… why don't we go get you all patched and dolled up and relaxed for you to wait around here" Dixie asked looking down at Roy.

"Yea…" He gave into those caring eyes "Let's go…" He stood up and followed her into an empty exam room.

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It was around 1 am, and very dark outside. Roy only had to get 3 stitches above his left eye which was very fortunate.

At the present moment he was sitting in a chair in Johnny's room in ICU staring out the window. He watched the snow lightly drifting down under the glow of the lights that lit up Rampart general.

He smiled to himself that Johnny had made it through surgery fine and was going to be okay. Aside from a little bit of recovery.. his partner had done it again.

(outside the hospital)

Dr. Brackett turned around half in anger and half in surprise as an icy ball of snow smacked into the back of his head, sending cold flakes down the back of his shirt and jacket.

The expression on his face lightened when he turned to see head nurse Dixie McCall standing with a smile on her face and another snowball waiting in her hand.

"Come on Dix!" Brackett smiled "What was that all about…" Brackett began moving closer to her.

"Ah ah ah Dr. Brackett… one more step and you'll get in right between the eyes.." Dixie smiled playfully at him.

"That's not fair!" Brackett lunged at Dixie but she dodged out of the way and ran down the hill.

Brackett knew she was heading for the parking lot.

"I'm gonna get you nurse McCall!" He shouted after her with laughter in his voice.

He decided to run down the concrete stairs in front of the main entrance to Rampart General. This way he could cut her off before she got to the crosswalk.

He could hear her laughing mildly as she ran and looked at him, knowing she had beat him to the cross walk.

Brackett sped up the pace in a last attempt to catch her. As soon as he did, however, his foot slid on the thick ice coating the last steps and he crashed the ground in defeat.

He heard Dixie's laughter fade quickly, and within a matter of seconds, she was kneeling beside him.

"Oh Kel!" Was all she said as she helped him turn over…. " Arrr…..hm…hm… are you … you .. hurt?" Dixie couldn't hold her laughter in "Ah haha haha…" She noticed the slightly pained look on his face. "I'm so… sorry Kel… but… hahahah" Dixie continued to smile and laugh.

Then she got up and began walking up the hill.

"Oh so first you throw snow in my face, and now you leave me here injured…" Kel shouted after her…

"I'm going to get a gurney and some help…" She called back between laughs and walked casually up the hill to the main entrance.

Not more than a moment later, Dixie, two orderly's, Dr.'s Early and Morton, and Roy De'soto emerged from the front main doors.

Brackett put his hands over his face in embarrassment as they all smiled at Dixie still laughing and seeing Brackett laid out flat on his back.

Joe Reached him first.

"I must say, that was quite a site to see… we were all watching from inside… Roy here even caught the show from the window up in Johnny's room… he's the one who called down the orderly's…." Joe smiled at his friend as Brackett looked up over to Roy.

"Thanks…" He said, but there was hardly any felt in his tone.

"So seriously… are you hurt?" Joe turned from funny man to doctor mode in a matter of seconds.

"Thought nobody'd ever ask…" He smiled as shook his head at all his friends.. then turned his attention to the lower half of his body... "I think my leg's broken… feels like left tib, fib fracture."

Joe examined the leg, as did Morton and Roy, and they all silently nodded in agreement to Brackett's statement.

Roy grabbed a splint off of the gurney and immobilized Brackett's leg. Then he let the orderly's pick Brackett up and strap him onto the gurney.

"Well….. we'll go take some pictures and get you in a cast, and then we'll let you spend the night." Joe smiled and followed in behind everyone as they walked back inside.

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1 week later December 24th.

The hospital's Christmas Eve party was extremely crowded and active. People toasting glasses and getting drunk, talking, dancing, and some, like paramedic John Gage, were even flirting.

Roy came and sat down next to John at one of the many tables.

"How ya feeling today partner!" He smiled and lightly tapped John on the shoulder, knowing he was still bruised and sore.

"Whole lot better!" He smiled back at his partner with a full fresh face.. finally free of that annoying nose splint.

Brackett, Dixie, and Capt. Stanley spotted the two medics sitting down and decided to go over and join them.

Dixie pulled out a chair for Kel to prop his cast up on. And they all sat around talking about what everyone was doing tomorrow for Christmas.

Joe Early entered the side of the table with a bottle of chilled Champaign in his hands.

"Anyone care to join me!" he smiled as everyone nodded and held up their glasses.

"Merry Christmas everyone!" He smiled and with a POP the cork went flying and the foam bubbled out of the top.

Everyone gasped and sucked in the chilled air through their teeth as the cork popped Johnny square in the nose.

He immediately teared up and grasped his face.

Joe put a look of 'I'm so sorry' onto his face and he Brackett both huddled around the now bleeding John.

Brackett shook his head and had to let the light chuckle escape his lips after the examination.

"Sorry John….but it's broken again!"

No one could hold it in any longer, not even John himself, and they all began to laugh.

"I guess sometimes these things just happen!" He smiled and shook his head still holding onto his nose.

"I guess so partner… I just guess so" Roy smiled and tossed Johnny a napkin for his nose.

The END !

Thanks for reading guys… hope you enjoyed! And sorry I didn't split it into chapters!

God bless!


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